The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $4.8 million for 10 new projects that will pilot, test and validate innovative and potentially transformative ways to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in graduate education.

The awards are part of the NSF Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program, designed to connect students with multiple career paths, support diversity and inclusion in graduate schools, and test approaches aimed at improving communications, quantitative, teamwork and other skills critical for successful integration into the workforce.

"These IGE projects address important challenges in graduate education: diversity, career pathways and transferable skillsets," said Jim Lewis, acting assistant director for NSF's Education and Human Resources Directorate. "Learning more about what constitutes effective graduate education will enable us to prepare a STEM-capable workforce that can meet the evolving demands of a fast-paced, data-intensive, globally networked world."

While the new IGE projects are diverse, they all evaluate approaches that could be scaled for use at other institutions nationally. Researchers are currently looking at specific approaches and interventions, including career peer-mentoring, gender-based case studies, faculty and student learning communities, revamped gateway courses, community and family engagement, and digital platforms for real-time feedback.

The project titles, principal investigators and sponsor institutions for the new awards are:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.